Lakeside Laps v.6 - 16 June 2012 (breakfast)

[team_v]

Just so everyone is aware, this is the event of someone pushing it too hard at the sprint session in the afternoon after our last outing to Lakeside.

[nat225]

the first photo looks like a real good stunt action...

that was the first sprint affer the car had been rebuilt..

the driver is ok according to my work mate.

[seangti]

far kenhell. Yeah hope the driver was ok after that, phenominal if he/she was.

Brilliant photography of the unfortunate event.

[VWindahouse]

Dear God Maybe QR would be the better option for our timed sessions. That being said, bet he/she was really pushing the envelope to become that unstuck!

[team_v]

Dear God Maybe QR would be the better option for our timed sessions. That being said, bet he/she was really pushing the envelope to become that unstuck!

I have no doubt that the driver was pushing the car beyond it's limitations.

Hanging around after happy laps to see some of those cars go around they really do push the envelope a bit (braking at the last set of tyres before the carousel) where as i usually lift off at the kink and then let it glide to the corner.

I believe we would be okay out there as we wouldn't be competing for points and you wouldn't know the result until you finish.

[seangti]

I believe we would be okay out there as we wouldn't be competing for points and you wouldn't know the result until you finish.

As soon as there's a clock racing you around the track, you start pushing that little bit harder, searching for fractions of a second. Plus, if you enter that kink at full tilt and a little unbalanced, doesn't take much to let go.

[team_v]

As soon as there's a clock racing you around the track, you start pushing that little bit harder, searching for fractions of a second. Plus, if you enter that kink at full tilt and a little unbalanced, doesn't take much to let go.

You are probably right Sean.
I would hope that everyone here would be driving within their comfort zone at both happy laps and the sprint session if we do go ahead with it.

[domlebo70]

You are probably right Sean.
I would hope that everyone here would be driving within their comfort zone at both happy laps and the sprint session if we do go ahead with it.

Pretty much.

That said, it is much easier to push hard in a FWD car (at least most). You don't have to worry about oversteer for the most part, and it's just a case of driving to your limits. Risk of crashing is also not linearly proportional to speed either. Driving the car at 95% is fairly risk free, 98% starts increasing your risks, and 100% is another level again.

[JimmyC379]

Pretty much.

That said, it is much easier to push hard in a FWD car (at least most). You don't have to worry about oversteer for the most part, and it's just a case of driving to your limits. Risk of crashing is also not linearly proportional to speed either. Driving the car at 95% is fairly risk free, 98% starts increasing your risks, and 100% is another level again.

That is if you don't take your foot of the throttle or brake to hard with out the foot near the accelerator or brake peddle mid corner when you are on the limit and with no traction control .

I was out there last Saturday having a look and think that crash might have happened when we were there on the 23/06. We thought the guy may have driven there 2 (the car went away on a tow truck and not a trailer) - I think the insurance company might get a bit sus on that one specially if he has semis. If it was the one I saw he walked away fine but maybe 25 grand out of pocket. A few came off getting to hot on the corners 2 - that's why I am more happy with QR of starters for the Sprint Series. But in saying that we are almost going sprint pace at LS now so it wont be that different just as long as we still let people pass when we know they are quicker than them like we are doing in Happy Laps - less chance of them taking a stupid risk in overtaking mid corner and lossing it like that guy.

[syhm1984]

That was the Twin Turbo STI with Stroker Kit. He was going into that concer around 140+ km, I do not think any of our cars can do that kind of speed yet.

[seangti]

I think the insurance company might get a bit sus on that one specially if he has semis.

Nothing a bit petrol and a match can't hide

Depending on the corner, appears to be the dog leg on the straight, he'd be carrying much more than 140km/h, as do most of us. Heres some of the data from the gtech.

From the GTech software called PASS


I've exported all the raw data to excel to measure speed against distance rather than time, so my fastest 3 laps which I had to role out of one lap at 2/3s the way through (redline):


measures of lateral and longitudinal g forces

[team_v]

I was going to say it looked lik ethe left hand kink along the front straight.
If so, i am pegging around one-seventy at that point and then let it glide to the hairpin but in the regular series for points they might be pushing it a lot harder and brake later.

[seangti]

I was going to say it looked lik ethe left hand kink along the front straight.
If so, i am pegging around one-seventy at that point and then let it glide to the hairpin but in the regular series for points they might be pushing it a lot harder and brake later.

yup, as you can see from my graphs, brush the brakes into that left hander, than back on the throttle to dive into the hairpin.

[team_v]

yup, as you can see from my graphs, brush the brakes into that left hander, than back on the throttle to dive into the hairpin.

You crazy!
I did note that though, however the acceleration isn't a big jump (i.e. lap 3 would have been 5km/h after hte kink before you started braking again)

[seangti]

When doing sprints, or aiming for a lap time/competing, that's where you can find significant fractions of time. But happy laps isn't that event. It's the difference between driving at 90% and 98%, which could be worth an easy second per lap. Plus it's only about 150m before my braking marker and the polo isn't powerful enough to gain much speed over that distance.

Hopefully there'll be more clear lap time available at QR so I can get clean laps in and later look at this stuff. In the software and with the sector times, you can race yourself around the track knowing if you're quicker or slower per sector. The toys that amuse me...

After QR, I might put a thread up in the general discussion area with that data, might be of interest to a few others.